Crashing the Gates of Death

I'd like to begin today by reading, again, two verses that Marion read from Isaiah 45, verses 2 and 3. I will go before you and level the mountains. I will break in pieces the doors of bronze and cut asunder the bars of iron. I will give you the treasures of darkness and the hordes in secret places, that you may know that it is I, the Lord, the God of Israel, who call you by your name.

Now this prophecy was first addressed to Cyrus, a Gentile king, who was called the Lord's anointed. It came down through the years and attached itself very clearly to the true anointed of God, the Messiah. And through him applies to the church.

I will break in pieces the doors of bronze and cut asunder the bars of iron. I will give you the treasures of darkness and the hordes in secret places. In other words, I will give you the power to break through the gate of death.

From Matthew 16. Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, who do men say the Son of Man is? And they said, some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets. He said to them, but who do you say that I am? Simon Peter replied, you are the Christ, the Son of the living God.

Jesus answered him, blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, the rock.

And on this rock, this thing you just said, this confession you just made, I will build my church and the gates of death will not prevail against it. I will break in pieces the doors of bronze. I will cut asunder the bars of iron.

The gates of death will not prevail against you. When we think of a church as an institution, or as a building, or as an organization which we maintain, we will always end up looking at a church which is standing still, having all it can do to hold out against the ravages of time and death. In prosperous times it may find itself getting heavier and bigger so that it can make it during the difficult lean times, but it will never move.

But when we begin to get a vision of our Lord's church which he builds, then we're looking at something which moves. It breaks in pieces the doors of bronze, cuts asunder the bars of iron. Then we're looking at that stone which is in Nebuchadnezzar's dream, which was cut without hand, rolled and smashed to feet of that giant image of gold and silver and bronze and iron and clay, which represented the kingdoms of the world, and broke it into a fine powder.

And then that stone began to grow and became a mountain until it filled the whole earth. Then somebody says, yeah, but how do you tell the difference between the church, the human institution, the work of man, and the church, the body of Christ, the living body of Christ, the true kingdom of God? And the test really is very simple. If it sits there and worries about its own expansion and survival, it's the church of man.

If it breaks through the gates of death and sets the captives free, in fact, it's the church of God. On this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. Hades, the region of the dead, is described by our Lord as a realm which exists on the other side of the grave.

When the rich man who never showed any mercy to that beggar at his gate, Lazarus, died, he landed in Hades, the region of the dead. But even though Hades is on the other side of the grave, the gates of Hades, the gates of death, open out on this world. In fact, those gates of death are taking ground, they're advancing, they're taking territory in this world, so that it is possible to be locked in behind the gates of death long before this body dies.

People who are walking around in this world, who are not alive with the life of God, who are incapable at this moment of hearing the voice of God or seeing the hand of God at work, are in fact locked in behind the gates of death. They're already captives. The human condition of lifelong bondage to the fear of death is itself a form of death.

It's a living death spent behind those gates. The hour is coming and now is when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear shall live, says Jesus. He's talking about the walking dead who eat and sleep and marry and give in marriage and get things and lose things, but it's all going on behind the gates of death.

Every one of us in this gathering right now knows from experience what it's like to be behind those gates. We have known what it's like to wake up in the morning and wish we could go back to sleep and never wake up again. We know what it's like to be consumed with anger or to be so lonely we wish we were dead or to think we're happy and then one day wake up and discover it was all illusion.

Now to be made alive in Jesus is to be brought out from behind those gates, to be set free, to come out of limbo and to be able to wake up in the morning in fact praising God, to be alive in God, to know God, love God, hear God's voice, know His presence, fit into His purpose. When we come out from behind the gates of death we immediately find ourselves part of that stone cut out of a mountain without hands, the Kingdom of God, the Church. And as part of the Church our one purpose for existence in this world is to keep crashing back through those gates of death and set other captives free.

He said to them, but who do you say that I am? Simon Peter replied, you are the Christ, the Son of the living God. Jesus answered him, blessed are you Simon bar Jonah for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter the rock and on this rock, this thing you just said, I will build my church and the gates of death shall not prevail against it.

We need to ask ourselves as individuals and as a body whether we are in fact part of that Church which He builds on the confession that He is the Christ that has one purpose, that breaks through the gates of death and sets the captives free. Or whether we are in fact only part of another dead human institution that itself is trapped behind those gates of death and is totally incapable of giving life or freedom to anyone. God give us the courage to ask honestly, what is this thing I'm part of? What is this thing I'm working in? What is this thing that's being built? Is it His body fulfilling His purpose? And if we should discover that it's really man's church rather than God's church, may God again give us the courage to follow Him out from behind those gates of death so that He can form us into His body, His church, His kingdom.

He said to them, but who do you say that I am? Simon Peter replied, you are the Christ, the Son of the living God. You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. If it's His church, it's built on this confession and on nothing else.

And if we are fitting into that, part of it, then the one rock bottom reality for us is that Jesus is Lord. We're not a club for nice people. We're not an agency put here to stabilize the community.

We are a people raised up to confess to God and to each other and to the world that Jesus is Lord. You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. Your blood atones for our sins.

Your death opens heaven for us. Your resurrection lifts us into the heavenly. Your presence is our joy.

And the doing of your will of mercy in this world. Amen. However, in fact, He is at work at this moment on the earth, anywhere at all, building His church.

We will find this rock as the foundation on which it is being built. The confession that He is the Christ. The bold, strong, clear, unashamed, powerful confession that He is Lord.

And if He is building the church here, and if we are fitting into it, we won't be able to keep that confession off our list. Even if we look like fanatics, and even if we sound like fools, it will come. And as we confess to God, to each other, and to the world that Jesus is Lord, He will confirm that truth.

He will manifest His Lordship among us and out there in the world in everything we do. And Jesus answered him, Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.

And I tell you, you are Peter the Rock, and on this rock, your confession, I will give it to the church. It's being built, not by hands of flesh, not by minds of flesh, but by God's revealing Spirit. And that Spirit continues all the time to reveal who Jesus is.

Blessed are you, Simon, son of John. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you. You didn't figure it out, and nobody showed it to you.

My Father by His Spirit revealed. And the only way you and I will know, day by day and hour by hour, who Jesus is, is by that same Spirit. If the Spirit doesn't reveal, we don't know.

But He does reveal. And as He reveals, may God give us the eyes to apprehend the vision. Never forget this man, who was reading theology until it was coming out of his ears, because he was hungry for God.

He was astute. He was honest. And he wanted to know.

But he wasn't finding anything. And he looked up this church in a telephone book, a particular church. A total stranger came in and sat down and said, I want to ask you if you can do it, to do one thing for me.

Prove to me that Jesus is God's Son. I said, I can't. But Jesus will.

If you will open your heart, and if you will make yourself available, and if you mean business, He'll make that clear to you. So, okay, what do I do? I'll do anything. And it could be in a million ways, but for him, it was a matter of every day, take some time, go into your room, shut the door, and pray to, even if you don't know that anybody's there, Lord, if you're there, show me, I want to know.

I'll follow you. And do that day after day, if you have to do it for 50 days, 100 days. He agreed.

Within 48 hours, this man knew that Jesus is Lord. In the same way Peter knew that Jesus is Lord. In the same way we know that Jesus is Lord.

He makes us alive and keeps us alive in his body by continuously revealing to us who he is. He builds his church at this moment all over the earth by opening the eyes of those who are hungry for truth and willing to face reality, who he is. And as we go forth with that confession on our lips, he confirms it.

And he opens the eyes of the blind. And he brings them into his body, making them alive by his Spirit. And I tell you, you are Peter, the rock.

And on this rock, your confession, I will build my church. And the gates of death shall not prevail against it. If it's his church, it's crashing the gates of death.

And we have to admit that we haven't even begun to crash the gates of death the way we should or the way we will. But if this is really our desire to be obedient and to let him build us into his church, our one purpose for existence, our reason for being here individually and corporately is to crash the gates of death and set the captives free. So how do we do it? Jesus is reading from Isaiah in the synagogue at the beginning of his ministry.

He's up there, opens the book to the place where it was written. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. Because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor, he has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to go into the region of death, the territory of death, and take ground, to move among people who are already obsessed with anger, oppressed with fear, bogged down with guilt, lonely to the point of heartbreak, greedy, so greedy they can't see anything but what they want to get, or whatever other kind of idolatry afflicts their lives to go in among such people and bring them news that will set them free, to set those captives free and raise the dead to life.

When we deliver somebody who is totally down with despair and give that person hope, we have crashed the gates of death. When somebody who is bound by an addiction of any kind, and many of us have known one kind or another in our own lives, when that person is set free, by the name of the Lord, we've crashed the gates of death. When we bring the lonely to the fellowship of God, we've crashed the gates of death.

When we heal the sick, when we bring them to the table of the Lord, his banquet hall, we've crashed those gates. The issue is not, are such things possible? Of course they're possible. There's a reason for existence.

The issue is, are we willing to give up trying to build the church the way we want to do it and present ourselves as a living sacrifice and let him build? If we are willing to be built by him into his church on the confession that he has borne by his revealing spirit, we will have his authority. The gates of death will yield at our command. And we will have good news for the poor.

And his word on our lips will release the captives, open the eyes of the blind, and set the captives free. God didn't bring us into his church in order that we might huddle together and try to be safe from this dangerous world behind the walls of a building or the structures of our own organizations. He brought us into his church, washed us in the blood of his son, anointed us with his spirit, imparted to us his nature so that we might go out and set the captives free, that we might crash the gates of death and release those prisoners.

God help us to get out there and do it. Let's take some time in silence. I'll break it.

Lord God, you know how hard it is for most of us here to yield to you. We've been fighting any kind of yielding to other people all our lives. You know how hard most of our heads are and what fighters we are and what individualists we are.

And we've applied that even to you. And we're asking that you'd help us, Lord God, to at least let down our guard before you and trust you. And give over our lives afresh this day and let you begin to deal with us and build us.

Lord God, you know what a mess we make of things and we try to do divine things in our own way. We pray that you'd help us, Lord God, to have some vision of what you're doing and a glorious, glorious desire and hope that we might begin to see and be bold to believe that things we've never been able to do will now begin to flow. That from these hearts washed by your grace, Lord God, will flow across these mouths rivers of living water that will raise the dead and set the captives free.

In the world out there, we ask it in Jesus' name.